ART and Research

Telemark Gallery

 Notodden, Norway

Town Notodden – An Industrial Adventure in Norway.

In 1905, the town of Notodden was the setting for a modern fairy tale. The world’s first industrial production of mineral fertilizer – with air as a raw material – started here. It happened at a time when the world needed more food, and farmers needed fertilizers to increase production. However, what is left of this history now is local pride in the form of the Museum of Local Industry, wonderful Art Nouveau style tree houses and red brick houses, but one also finds some empty post-industrial buildings that still have equipment and traces of people who worked there. Telemarksgalleri is located in one of these buildings.

At the present time, the town is growing. And among the industries located here is Sperre Company Limited, one of the leading manufacturers of deep sea diving boats. Sperre delivers customized remotely operated vehicle systems (ROV) for use in offshore waters.

The Family of Vanishing Names

When I was searching for a studio in the area, I walked through these almost empty, but beautiful buildings. I met people sorting objects and clearing locales. They gave me permission to look through the remaining items. I ended up getting some nice, old objects including several hand written journals.

In this exhibition, I present one of those inherited objet trouvé: it is a transformed register (an analogue binder) with names and addresses of people who once worked at this deserted industrial locale. I merged the names with old and recent photographs of the industrial facilities and the area. I called this work The Family of Vanishing Names. The title directs attention to names written with pens whose ink fades with years, disappearing slowly. There are ashen marks on the papers showing places where names once were before they were erased, while some names are crossed off. Other papers have notes like: “has moved”, “got another job” or “died”. This register is thus a visual testimony to the memory of the people who worked here. Some people are now gone, and exist only as words in this family of vanishing names.